Exposing the largest, most expensive and deceptive case of crony capitalism in American history...

Thursday, July 12, 2012

General Electric Making “Bank” off Obama's “Green” Stimulus Money; Over $3 Billion and Counting

Part two of DOE “Junk” Loans and Cronyism, exposing how
General Electric –– CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Chair of Obama’s Job Council ––
has raked in over $3 billion, and counting, from the Obama "green"
stimulus.

As I was preparing to expose one of the big fish in this green energy
scheme –– how General Electric has raked in at least $3 billion of
President Obama's "green" stimulus money –– two more
government-backed renewable energy projects made headlines. Abound Solar went bust and it seems that Nevada Geothermal Power is going down the drain, both included in the Department of Energy's excessively risky loan portfolio, adding more embarrassment to the president’s “highly touted green energy initiative."

Last April, I began to unleash years of research starting with the "Department of Energy “Junk Loans” and Cronyism, Introduction," setting up the first in a series of at least five topics that will prove cronyism and corruption are the driving forces behind President's Obama's green energy agenda, with total disregard for our economy and national debt.

And who were the "lucky" 7 percent? Of the 27 loans issued (26 as BrightSource was counted twice in the House Oversight report) through
the 1705 LGP to 21 firms, virtually all of them have meaningful
political connections (bundlers, donors, supporters) –– to either
President Obama or other high-ranking Democrats — or both!

To add insult to "taxpayer injury," in that same June 19th House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing, Dr. De Rugy (a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University), had some pretty damning testimony, including how the DOE justifies the 1705 Loan Guarantee Program. She even disputed the DOE's argument that "by investing in green technology, it would create up to 5 million green jobs."
When in reality, De Rugy continues, "the DOE's own data shows that $16
billion in loans were guaranteed [under the 1705 LGP], and 2378
permanent green jobs were created" –– "that means that for every $6.7
million in taxpayer exposure, ONE job was created!"

Keep in mind that 1705 LGP is not the only DOE loan program to be analyzed –– there are three, and since 2009, the DOE has guaranteed a total of $34.7 billion. As you will see, there are also other government agencies and programs doling out billions more in "green" funds.

General Electric, CEO Jeffrey Immelt, Chair of Obama’s
Job Council and the Billions They Raked in Through the 2009 Obama
Stimulus Package

Whereas General Electric (GE) is a heavy donor to both Republicans and Democrats, and Immelt himself "plays the role of typical corporate donor who hedges his bets on both sides of the fence," in 2008, GE gave the Obama campaign $529,855, marking them a top Obama donor. Nevertheless, GE is a major player on the clean-energy scene as well as in this green energy scheme. Even The New York Times recognized
GE’s “green power,” noting that in 2009, GE lobbied Congress to help
expand the “clean-energy subsidy programs, and it now profits from every
aspect of the boom in renewable-power plant construction,”
including “hundreds of millions in contracts to sell its turbines to
wind plants built with public subsidies.” In fact, you'll be "blown away" by the billions of "wind energy grants" that blew out
of the stimulus package back in February 2010, of which GE is
contracted to at least 26% of them as the "Turbine Manufacturer."

While a recent "news flash" was published by the Republican National Committee, confirming via Recovery.gov
that "General Electric received over $1.2 billion worth of stimulus
loan guarantees, awards, contracts and grants" (the majority of which
were for renewable energy projects), they missed billions more. Two
large 1705 loan guarantees that I had outlined in April of this year, as well as a forthcoming $490 million cash grant and a $54.6 million loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Add in some smaller government subsidies and awards for a multitude of green projects, programs, and through some of their "green alliances,"
that I found during my 2011 research, and GE's "green tab" exceeds $3
billion in direct (some indirectly) taxpayer cash, and counting. ;

Let's take a look at GE's two projects from the 1705 Loan Guarantee Program, both of which are included the DOE's risky investment portfolio.

GE sponsored the Caithness Shepherds Flat, and also supplied
the project with 338 wind-turbines. On top of the $1.3 billion loan, the
Caithness project is set to receive a cash grant of $490 million from the Treasury Department once those turbines start turning.

Later, another close associate of, and big donor to the president invested in Caithness. As uncovered by Peter Schweizer in his book, Throw Them All Out, "Google's CEO at the time, Eric Schmidt, served as an informal advisor to President Obama.” Still, Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman, was an Obama donor in 2008, and since April 2009, is a member of the president's Science and Technology Advisory Council (PCAST). Interestingly, Google’s $814,540 contribution to Obama’s campaign made it the fifth largest donor in 2008. As of late, Google has aimed its "search engines"
at green technology, many of which have received government "help" ––
BrightSource, Solar City, Telsa Motors, and others, but we’ll stay
focused on GE.

The House Oversight, March 2012 investigation
reveals internal memos of concern over the fact that the Caithness
Shepherds Flat project was receiving “an excessive amount of public
subsidy (where grants, tax credits and loan guarantees provided 65% of
the funding for the project), and that private parties did not have
sufficient ‘skin in the game.’”

Further, it goes on to state, “Four months after the DOE
approved the Caithness loan, President Obama named Jeff Immelt, the CEO
of GE, as the Chairman of Obama’s Job Council” –– a council stacked with Democratic donors, and several Obama bundlers, both for the 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

It also discloses “General Electric’s broad access to loan
guarantees,” and it gives a very illuminating account. “Since Immelt’s
appointment as Chair of the Job Council, two additional
government-backed transactions have occurred." "First the poorly rated
1366 Technologies, sponsored in part by GE, received a direct $150
million loan commitment from the DOE for its solar manufacturing
plant." Second was the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that loaned
$54.6 million to Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR) "to
purchase thirty new General Electric ES44AC diesel-electric
locomotives" –– a loan that raised red flags in the House investigation.

President Obama's Job Council

However, Immelts’ “special entrée” to the White House started two years prior to that February 2011 "Job Czar" position, as a member of President Obama’s 2009 Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB). Besides Immelt’s direct access to President Obama since 2009, GE was privy to Valerie Jarrett’s September 2009 "Clean Energy Summit,"
where an array of attendees just so happened to "collectively strike
gold" with over $5.3 billion in taxpayer funds from the Obama stimulus.

What's more is that GE personnel sit on the DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee (EAC) of which “recommendations”
from their 2008 and 2009 reports made its way into “the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and are being implemented in DOE
policies and programs under the Obama administration.” Others on the EAC
roster that were given DOE "green money" are American Electric Power (AEP), Austin Energy, NextEra Energy, CenterPoint Energy, to name a few.

As luck would have it, I've tracked at least five members of President Obama’s Job Council that are connected to firms that have cashed in on the green energyspending
spree. Besides Immelt, winners include John Doerr partner at Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lewis Hay chairman and chief executive
officer of NextEra Energy, Inc., Richard Parsons Chairman of the Board
of Citigroup, Inc., and Penny Pritzker (also from the PERAB), whom wears many liberal hats, including a prominent position on Obama’s 2008 National Finance Committee.

As for billionaire Doerr, he too served on the PERAB, and in early 2009 extended his influence with Obama's transition team and leaders in Congress, ultimately shaping
what went into the energy section of the 2009 economic stimulus
package. Doerr is another big winner of government clean-energy funds
through his venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, where Al Gore is also a
partner. Doerr and Gore strenuously campaigned for candidate Obama,
including financial donations, and in February 2011, Doerr even hosted a
lavish high-profiled "tech-exec dinner" for the president, and these days, is considered "a very big-ticket Obama donor."

Kleiner Perkins is a firm that I began to unravel in 2010, stressing that over 50 percent of their Greentech Portfoliosecured all kinds of loans, grants, and special tax breaks –– placing them in an "elite green society;" yet
it’s a firm to eventually revisit, because since 2010, they have
tripled their "investments" and there is much more to expose.

In a twist of fate, Richard Parsons, is connected to SolarReserve and their $737 million DOE "non-investment" grade loan, of which was covered by my new ally, Marita K. Noon, Executive Director of Energy Makes America Great and columnist at Townhall.com. As I attempt to cover the entire DOE "junk bond" Portfolio, together we will be tackling the Special Seven –– those that are not only part of the DOE's risky investments, but received millions (if not billions) from the 1603 Grant Program, both programs created by the Obama administration through the 2009 stimulus package. These firms also received fast-tracked approval
by the Department of the Interior to lease federal lands in a no-bid
process, and with little scrutiny over environmental issues. They
include Abengoa Solar, BrightSource Energy, First Solar, Nevada
Geothermal Power, NextEra Energy Resources, Ormat Nevada, and
SolarReserve.

Needless to say, just last year, GE –– along with NextEra Energy (also in the House March 2012 investigation), whose CEO Lewis Hay, is also a member of Obama’s Job Council –– bought the California Desert Sunlight project from First Solar, a project that was the recipient of a $1.5 billion dollar DOE loan. Still, NextEra Energy's Genesis Solar project that received a $681.6 million DOE loan, and First Solar –– another "well-connected" solar company that was "awarded" $3 billion in DOE loan guarantees –– are both part of the Special Seven.

It's gonna be a hot summer...

Jeffrey Immelt and the American Energy Innovation Council

2010 was a busy year for GE –– their Energy Portfolio hit $6 billion, doubling the amount it held in 2008, and Immelt formed American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), and called for "a tripling of U.S.
federal energy research budget,” a direction the president has been
taking. Coincidently, this group consists of two Obama Job Council
members, John Doerr and Ursula Burns, the chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation, another one that helped fill Obama‘s 2008 campaign coffers.

Additionally, principals of AEIC include Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates (along with other business bigwigs), another carbon tax pusher in cahoots with Secretary Chu, and an investor in Sapphire Energy that received a $54.4 million loan guarantee from the Department of Agriculture and $50 million grant from the DOE.

Topping the AEIC is Chad Holiday, the Chairman of the Board at
Bank of America. Besides the fact that Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
were both "top Obama contributors from 2003 to 2008," they also, along with NRG Energy, are investors
in the San Francisco-based Prologis project that in June of 2011
secured a $1.4 billion DOE loan guarantee, which was considered
non-investment grade. It's no surprise that Big Banks are not immune to the green corruption scandal, and there is much to say on that matter, yet we'll save that for later.

Nevertheless, in Schweizer's book –– a must read by the way, naming a lengthy list of "Obama Contributors and the Stimulus Scandal" (yet, I've found more) ––
Sapphire Energy has another Democrat tie, ARCH Venture Partners is a
major investor, and Bob Nelson, the founding partner, served on
President Obama's National Finance Committee during the 2008 campaign.
However it's worth noting that Schweizer divulges that at least ten
members are connected to companies that received billions of green energy money.

GE also used lobbying power to “green" their pockets. According to OpenSecrets.org, in December 2010, Immelt was part of an "Obama Business Summit,”
noting that GE had spent more than $32 million on lobbying, ranking
them as the number three lobbying spender of 2010. Moreover, GE was
extremely active in lobbying the 2009 economic stimulus package –– the "number one lobbied” piece of legislation since 2005.

In addition, GE is part of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP),
a cap-and-trade lobbying group comprised of more politically connected
big "green" money winners –– AES, Duke Energy, Exelon Corp, NextEra
Energy, NRG Energy, and PG&E, some of which GE is in cahoots with.

While cap-and-trade has yet to become law, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), along with Administrator Lisa Jackson and her “environmental justice” mantra , has been on a regulatory rampage. As of late, the EPA issued the First Carbon Pollution Standard,
an extremely relevant area because the Obama administration’s energy
policies will ensure that GE and many of these well-connected green
firms, and their investors, gain more wealth at the expense of our
economy and all Americans.

Silver Spring Networks is one of Kleiner Perkins shining green companies, and they cashed in big time
in 2009, when the DOE starting handing out $4 billion in Smart Grid
grants, while NRG Energy –– also found in the House investigation –– is
another politically connected energy company. As Schweizer's Throw Them All Outbook reveals, billionaire George Soros (another 2008 Obama donor), "gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called stimulus money," and then went on a "stock buying spree in companies that ultimately benefited from the federal stimulus," including NRG Energy.

Moreover, who benefits [the most] from the DOE's Loan Guarantee
Program? "The recipient of the most 1705 loans was NRG Energy Inc.,
which received $3.8 billion (23.7 percent of the overall amount
guaranteed under the 1705). Overall, just four companies received 64
percent, or $10.3 billion, of the total amount guaranteed under the
1705 program," states Veronique de Rugy's June 19, 2012 assessment and subsequent testimony, mentioned earlier in this article. However, there is much more astonishing data worthy of attention, but at a later time.

Meanwhile Energy Technology Ventures has its own energy tech portfolio, of which in 2009, Foro Energy “received
one of the largest of the Department of Energy’s coveted ARPA-E grants
with $9.1 million.” Amongst others that stand out besides 1366
Technologies, is Hara,
“a company that sells software to help businesses measure and reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions,” which is not only another Doerr
investment (profiled in my 2010 Green Corruption series),
but like many of these green firms, their massive payoff will come once
mandates and regulations –– like cap-and-trade or a carbon tax –– are
in place.

Further in 2009, Silver Spring Networks and GE joined forces with ComEd, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp., for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) pilot program. In October 2009, ComEd was up for a $5
million DOE stimulus grant, and had applied for $175 million in ARRA
federal stimulus for their AMI pilot project. It was confirmed that the AMI project was "initially funded by [the] $5 million DOE stimulus grant" and that additional federal funding was also received; yet the exact amount is unknown at this time.

Besides Exelon making it on that "top Obama contributors list," in August of 2011, they were the recipient of a $656 million loan for the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, one of the non-investment grade loans listed in the House investigation. It must be a Chicago thing, because as of July 2011, Frank Clark then CEO of the ComEd unit (their chief state lobbyist) had raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for President Obama and the DNC for 2012, marking Mr. Clark as an Obama bundler for both campaigns. However there is an even more complex Obama, Exelon story to share that includes Clark, Exelon CEO John Rowe as well as other high-profiled Democrats
–– Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and chief political
strategist, David Axelrod –– uh, and more stimulus money. But again, I
digress...

More GE "Green" Awards

Now, if you spend some time at energy.gov or snooping around any of the energy-trade magazines and news,
you'll find more taxpayer funded GE "green awards." However, with a
team of investigators, I'm confident much more would be discovered.

July 16, 2009: "DOE Announces Nearly $14 Million to go to 28
New Wind Energy Projects, including $12.8 million in Recovery Act
funds" and General Electric's Wind Turbine Manufacturing Process
Monitoring (Niskayuna, NY) was awarded $697,769.

July 20, 2010: "DOE Announces $30 Million for Energy-Efficient Housing Partnerships...and the following is a brief description of the selected teams, of which will each receive between $500,000 and $2.5 million depending on their performance." General Electric is on the Building Industry Research Alliance (BIRA) team.

July 29, 2009: "DOE Announces Awards for up to $11 Million for
New Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (PVPowered will partner with
Portland General Electric)," and the DOE cost share is up to $3 million.

October 2010: "Department of Energy Announces Third Grant for
U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center," whereas "$12.5 million will be
given over the next five years to lead a consortium on
energy-efficient building technologies under the U.S.-China Clean
Energy Research Center (CERC)," of which GE is part of.

August 2011: GE won $1.3 million DOE funding for Carbon Capture R&D

December 2011: GE won $10 million in DOE funding for a smart grid project in the town of Lessburg Florida

December 2011: GE Global Research in Niskayna, New York was awarded $1.36 million grant to improve the efficiency of EV’s

And so on...

Yep, GE is making bank off "green" –– over $3 billion,
and counting, adding them to that "elite green society," along with
some of their co-conspirators and cohorts like NRG Energy, Kleiner
Perkins, The Westly Group, Google, VantagePoint Ventures, Goldman
Sachs, Big Oil, Big Banks, and others.

Moreover, as this scandal is unfolded, GE can
also be placed into two more categories: "Five Obama Job Council
Members" as wells as those "Stimulus Authors" that have cashed in on the president's "green" agenda, including the $800 billion stimulus package where over ten percent –– $80 billion taxpayer dollars –– was earmarked for renewable energy, which was meant to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

However, it is only stimulating the pockets of President Obama and high-ranking Democrat cronies. Oh, as for "those jobs"...that's another story. Still, those invited to this "green"
table are the ultra-rich willing to "pay to play," even catapulting
them into more wealth, while we the taxpayers are only allowed to pay the tab. That should anger all Americans.

2 comments:

Just because these different companies have received money from the federal government doesn't mean they're not using that money to manufacture a product as well as pay wages. That is the whole point of the stimulus money. They're not putting it in the bank and making interest of it. A fact that this article fails to represent. People think green energy jobs are fiction, they're not. In Iowa you can put in a 2 kilowatt solar setup on your home for About $6,000 dollars. You can take advantage of tax credits of $1000 dollars from the state, $1000 dollars from the federal government, and depending on which energy company you have another $1000 dollars. That leaves your cost at about $3000 dollars. Your savings every year would be about $500 dollars in energy costs. The total savings over the life of the unit, which is 25 to 35 years, would be between $13,000 to $17,000 dollars in energy cost. You can also get loans from major banks to have this system installed so you pay them off in 6 years with the money you would save by not having to show that extra money out to the electric power company. So your implication in this article that green energy jobs are bogus on the individual homeowners level as well as business is there not bogus they are good jobs and they will say people lots of money.

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The Green Corruption Files launched April 28, 2012: Total Pageviews

April 2012 -- Green Corruption: Department of Energy “Junk Loans” and Cronyism, Part One

"Extraordinary in-depth expose' of the incredible extent of the green energy scandal. It goes so far beyond Solyndra that you'll be shocked." April 26, 2012 Dave Nalle, Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus and editor at Blogcritics Magazine

Two months ago, on the Senate floor, the Majority Leader Harry Reid rambled on suggesting that instead of considering “the latest Republica...

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Green Corruption Files Inside The Limbaugh Letter

December 2012 Issue / Page 14

December 2012 Issue

Green Graft:

Fifty failures, Green Corruption blog lists a total of 50 Obama green-energy busts: 23 bankrupt and 27 teetering. As of 10/23/12, at least $15 billion in "green" taxpayer money is either going or gone, most funneled to Obama Democrat cronies.

September 24, 2014: Christine Lakatos was live on RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on CPR Worldwide Media

September 17, 2014: The Green Corruption Files found....

THE MISSION: Follow the money

Since late 2009, we've been exposing the Obama Regime’s clean-energy dirt –– aligned with the Left as well as those with political "access and influence" –– proving that this green energy scam is at least the largest, most expensive and deceptive case of crony capitalism in American history.

Stay tuned as we expose one chunk of this scheme at a time...

For those not familiar with The Green Corruption Files: In short, since 2010, I’ve been tracking the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that this administration has spent on climate change in conjunction with “green” (clean, renewable, alternative) energy –– AKA President Obama’s "save the planet slush fund."

More thoroughly, I’ve been FOLLOWING THE MONEY: the $34B that was doled out via the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program; the $23B (and counting) in 1603 stimulus grants; special tax breaks; and various other “green” programs that were used as political payback, crony capitalism, and corporate welfare.

On April 28, 2012, this blog was launched, and we’ve published over 60 posts so far. Also, in the mix was a collaboration with Marita Noon, energy columnist and Executive Director at Energy Makes America Great, which began in June 2012 and recently ended. Ms. Noon has written about 25 stories based on my research, however, "together we have covered Obama’s Green-Energy Crony-Corruption Scandal more extensively than any other single outlet

Our work has been cited (sometimes multiple times) by an array of conservatives icons such as Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Jerome Corsi, John Hinderaker(Powerline blog), John Ransom, Jim Simpson, Daniel Greenfield (FontPageMag.com), and others.

In July 2014, a “green corruption tip” ended up becoming a bombshell piece by Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon –– which was later “spotted” at the House Financial Services Committee website.

Christine Lakatos is not only the founder of The Green Corruption Files, which was basically born as a concerned citizen to take on a big and corrupt government; she is also writer for Blogcritics Magazine. She’s a Christian, and the mother of two wonderful daughters. Her extensive background as an ACE Certified Fitness Trainer with over 30 years experience in the health and fitness industry, includes authoring the amazing fat loss program for women and girls of all ages, My Diva Diet –– eventually to be unleashed as a Fitness Superhero cartoon and video game. Lastly (but not the entire story), she is a retired bodybuilder and fitness competitor with quite a few titles under her belt (see website), including a competitor on American Gladiators in 1990.

Alarmingly, our environment has been hijacked by uber-rich individuals, crooked politicians, and an assortment of left wing extremists who are fueled by greed and power attached to a radical agenda to bring about "global governance," “redistribute the wealth,” and put the progressive movement –– big government, social justice and the death of capitalism –– on the fast track. Under the guise of “saving the planet,” these players, who are all interconnected in a variety of ways, are transforming our climate into something more sinister –– a scam of epic proportions.

Solyndra is just the tip of this "CORRUPT" iceberg.

June 2012: GREEN JOBS Obama Labor Dept. and the Green Jobs Scam

April 2012: Lakatos: The Obama “Green” Corruption—Dollar by Dollar

"Finally, someone has done the job of itemizing the massive transfer of your taxes to Obama cronies, donors and Democrat party supporters. Now that we can see it, we find most of the firms that received tax dollars were poor investments BEFORE the money was given them. For example:

March 31, 2012: The Daily Caller Excerpt...

Even more damning allegations, which suggest that former Obama administration officials and campaign bundlers received a sizable share of those federal funds, are now surfacing.

Christine Lakatos, a researcher and conservative writer who has followed the emerging scandals for several years at the blog Green Corruption, told TheDC the administration is engaging in “crony capitalism with ‘green’ dollars.”

Lakatos claimed the scandal goes deeper than Rep. Issa and his investigators have detected. She said companies linked to contribution “bundlers” from President Obama’s 2008 campaign received about 80 percent of the “green energy” loans made by the Energy Department during the last three years.

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About Me

I am THE Green Corruption Blogger-- check it.
I'm a Christian, mother of two awesome daughters, a Conservative, and I love animals. My REAL job is fitness expert, and I have a self-published diet book for women and young girls called My Diva Diet, and I'm in the process of developing the Super Fit KIDS USA Cartoon.
Lastly, I'm a retired bodybuilder and fitness competitor, and back in 1990 I was a contender on American Gladiators, and I have the YouTube clip to prove it -- By A Hair